This study examines the in-game encyclopaedia Codex as it appears within the videogame Mass Effect. The purpose of this study is to analyse the Codex with emphasis on how the reading process is affected by the videogame medium. In this regard the study seeks to uncover what characterises the Codex as a fictional encyclopaedia, what it entails and how it interacts with the rest of the game. The theoretical basis of this study is derived from a combination of the writings of Wolfgang Iser concerning the process of reading, Jesper Juul's writings on the relationship between games and narratives, and the concept of intermediality as discussed by Hans Lund and Jørgen Bruhn.       This study is based on a close examination of the PC and Playstation 3 versions of the videogame Mass Effect, created by Bioware, with particular emphasis placed on the Codex. Mass Effect is a science fiction third-person shooter and RPG set in a future where mankind has begun interacting with aliens civilizations and colonising new planets. The Codex is an in-game encyclopaedia providing the player with information on various topics relating to the game world.       While videogames are not narratives they cancontain and use narrative content. Mass Effect does this. Thus it is divided into two settings. The first is the actual environment accessible to the player. The second is the implied game-world that is derived from a combination of the game's narrative content and the player's imagination. Facilitating the production of this implied world is the main purpose of the Codex. The implied game-world is reminiscent of the virtual dimension of literary texts. Beyond the Codex however, Mass effect employs multiple medial strategies in order to facilitate the production of the implied game-world. The game also offers the player a certain degree of freedom when it comes to what narrative content is revealed. This in turn affects the production of the implied game-world.

In this paper, we look at a media controversy that took effect at the release of the third game of the Mass Effect videogame series. The fans hated the ending of the game and demanded the publisher change it, which later happened. The fans have thus been given a certain amount of power and influence that wasn't too standard. The first part of the paper deals with videogame theory - we talk about the expressive power of videogames and how it can influence people. With the help of Henry Jenkins and Pierre Lévy we then showcase several media theories which attempt to explain the relationship between the fans, authors and content. Central to this paper is a qualitative research of chosen internet forum posts where we have attempted to learn the reasons for the fans' outrage. In the summary, we summarize what we have learned so far and attempt to put it all together.

This essay researches video games and learning. The academic interest in video games is steadily growing and this teacher‟s degree unifies interactive game play with the learning possibilities of the media. The study compares the Swedish upper secondary school curriculum Lpf94 with Gee‟s educational theory. The correlations are analyzed for compatibility, and Bioware‟s 2007 video game Mass Effect is applied to see what elements are capable to teach playing students English. A qualitative methodology is used according to Malterud‟s template analysis style and follows a top-down fashion. The material is analyzed through a triangulation system where each piece is read as a text and is compared and interpreted. The results show that Lpf94 and Gee‟s theory has a generally high compatibility. English learning is viable since Mass Effect provides the player with a language simulator that puts the language in a logical environment. Although the game script is static, the study shows that Mass Effect includes vocabulary training, a pragmatic understanding of language, and a tool for class room teaching.

No description available.

This thesis is a project-based work accompanied by this short, written component. Entitled, Radical Roleplayers, the project takes the form of a digital roleplaying blog in which the the translation of roleplaying and identity performance is translated from a digital space to the organic, or “real world” environment. The blog serves to critically dissect my own roleplaying, and to challenge what it means to be a roleplayer both in gamespace and online by stepping outside of the rules that allow the community to remain insular and uncontested. Radical Roleplayers explores how I, as a gamer, identify with my digital self, and how I have explored identity through my avatars, role playing games, and game creation. In the form of roleplaying journals, videos, and other digital content, the blog challenges what we know about gaming, identity, and roleplaying, and explore ways in which the notion of radical play allows gamers to develop methods of resistance, expression, control, and safety. Please navigate to http://radicalroleplayers.tumblr.com/ to experience the project.

Submitted by Natalia de Souza Gonçalves (natalia.goncalves@ufpe.br) on 2016-09-19T14:05:55Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese_Eveline Aquino_final_versão entregue_após biblioteca.pdf: 2444824 bytes, checksum: 611daa8ff08eb71508238b15067ae577 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-19T14:05:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese_Eveline Aquino_final_versão entregue_após biblioteca.pdf: 2444824 bytes, checksum: 611daa8ff08eb71508238b15067ae577 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-15 / CAPES / A dinâmica espaço-temporal do fitoplâncton está relacionada a um conjunto de variáveis ambientais. As camadas de estratificação vertical e a presença de ilhas oceânicas podem influenciar na distribuição desses organismos. Esse estudo objetivou investigar a distribuição e composição da comunidade fitoplanctônica nas águas oceânicas do arquipélago de Fernando de Noronha (Atlântico Sul Equatorial, Brasil), como um fator biológico indicativo das condições oceanográficas, evidenciando sua relação com as variáveis abióticas e sob influências da proximidade do arquipélago e da estratificação vertical, bem como registrar as populações de Ornithocercus sp. que apresentam diferentes horários e estágios de reprodução, sendo esta última uma abordagem complementar. Para tanto, as amostras da água foram coletadas ao longo de seis pontos, em escalas espacial (horizontal e vertical) e temporal, a saber: em diferentes distâncias do arquipélago, em duas posições geográficas (nordeste e sudoeste), em seis profundidades (entre 1 e 130 m), em dois períodos do dia (diurno, noturno e nictemeral) e durante dois anos (2010 e 2012). Foram coletadas as variáveis abióticas, como sendo os nutrientes inorgânicos dissolvidos, temperatura e salinidade. A clorofila a fitoplanctônica foi determinada, bem como a densidade celular, riqueza de espécies, abundância relativa, frequência de ocorrência, diversidade e uniformidade. Como resultados, horizontal e verticalmente, foram identificadas 115 espécies fitoplanctônicas, representadas essencialmente por dinoflagelados (>60% do total), seguidos por diatomáceas, cianobactérias e dictiofíceas. Foi registrado um decréscimo gradual da densidade de 1 m a 130 m e, portanto, mais elevada na camada de mistura. Por outro lado, não houve efeito significativo da estratificação para a clorofila a. Os dinoflagelados Oxytoxum gracile Schiller e O. laticeps Schiller foram dominantes, para todos os tratamentos em estudo. A alta dominância de dinoflagelados indica a estabilidade da água, devido à estratificação. Nitrato e fosfato estiveram relacionados com O. laticeps, favorecendo a sua dominância. A diversidade e composição de espécies, horizontal e verticalmente, foram homogêneas, sugerindo não ocorrer efeito de massa insular durante o período em estudo e para os tratamentos amostrais aplicados. / The spatio-temporal dynamics of phytoplankton is connected to any environmental variables. The layers of vertical stratification and the occurrence of oceanic islands can induce the distribution of these organisms. This study aimed to investigate the distribution and composition of phytoplankton in the ocean waters of Fernando de Noronha archipelago (South Atlantic, Brazil), as an indicative biological of oceanographic conditions and their relationship with abiotic variables and under archipelago's proximity influences and vertical stratification, as well as record the populations of Ornithocercus sp. under different timings and reproduction stages and this is a complementary approach. Samples of water sampled over six points in spatial (horizontal and vertical) and temporal scales: at different distances, in two geographic positions (northeast and southwest), six depths (between 1 and 130 m), different periods of the day (daytime, night and nyctemeral) and two years (2010 and 2012). The abiotic variables were sampled (dissolved inorganic nutrients, temperature and salinity). Chlorophyll a was determined, and the phytoplanktonic density, species richness, abundance, frequency of occurrence, diversity and uniformity. In horizontal and vertical scale, were identified 115 phytoplankton species, represented by dinoflagellates (> 60% of the total), followed by diatoms, cyanobacteria and dyctiophyceans. Were observed a gradual decrease in density from 1 m to 130 m and higher density in the mixing layer. Were dominant Oxytoxum gracile Schiller and O. laticeps Schiller in all samples. The high dominance of dinoflagellates indicates water stability due to stratification. On the other hand, there was no significant effect of stratification for chlorophyll a. Nitrate and phosphate were in significant relationship with O. laticeps, benefiting its dominance. The diversity and species composition, horizontal and vertical, were homogeneous, suggesting that no occur insular mass effect during the study period and for the applied sample treatments.

Many video games use non-playable characters (NPCs) as important plot devices and for supplying the players with a meaningful playing experience. The Mass Effect series is known to have many likeable NPCs in its story, and even though emotional attachment and believable traits of NPCs has been defined, it is not entirely known what likeable NPCs excel in. Therefore, six participants were interviewed to talk about their favourite and least liked NPC and most memorable moment from the series. The results show that well developed AI, an unique personality, character development and free choice to avoid the NPC made them likeable.

During the last few years, deep learning-based techniques have made much progress in the medical image processing field, such as segmentation and registration. The main characteristic of these methods is the large demand of medical images to do model training. However, the acquisition of these data is often difficult, due to the high expense and ethical issues. As a consequence, the lack of data may lead to poor performance and overfitting. To tackle this problem, we propose a data augmentation algorithm in this paper to inpaint the tumor on healthy pediatric brain MRI images to simulate pathological images. Since the growth of tumor may cause deformation and edema of the surrounding tissues which is called the 'mass effect', a probabilistic UNet is applied to mimic this deformation field. Then, instead of directly adding the tumor to the image, the GAN-based method is applied to transfer the mask to the image and make it more plausible, both visually and anatomically. Meanwhile, the annotations of the different brain tissues are also obtained by employing the deformation field to the original labels. Finally, the synthesized image together with the real dataset is trained to do the tumor segmentation task, and the results indicate a statistical improvement in accuracy.

No description available.

This essay aims to examine how the synthetic non-human subjects, EDI and Legion, are constituted in terms of their bodies, gender, desire and emotion, in the gaming series Mass Effect. In a close-gaming method I also want to explore in which way the gamer can effect or even change the expressions of the body, gen­der, desire, and emotion made by the synthetic non-human subjects. In order to do this I use Judith Butlers and Sara Ahmeds queer theory, and Donna Haraways cyborg feminism. I concluded that EDI em­braces her embodiments and is given a highly sexualized female body, being more of a woman than a machine. While Legion is rather embracing disembodiment and is given a non sexualized, androgynous male body, be­ing more of a machine than a man. The gamer can decide whether EDI should have a romance with a human in the game or not, but the gamer cannot in the same way decide whether or not Legions and EDIs subject­ivity will be reco­gnized as human subjectivity or at least almost-human subjectivity.